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About the Year of Light

The International Year of Light is a global initiative which will highlight to the citizens of the world the importance of light and optical technologies in their lives, for their futures, and for the development of society. It is a unique opportunity to inspire, educate, and connect on a global scale.

IYL 2015 Images

Shadows Of Antelope Canyon, Arizona, US

Shadows are a familiar experience for most of us. Any time an object blocks the light from another source, it forms a shadow. In this photograph, we see shadows on the spectacular walls of Antelope Canyon in Arizona as sunlight streams through an opening above. But did you know all of the places that shadows occur? For example, larger objects such as the Earth and the Moon can cast shadows during eclipses. Shadows can also happen with different types of light from radio waves up to more energetic X-rays and gamma rays. The nature of a shadow depends on both the object and the light that it is blocking.
Image Credit:
J L Spaulding, creative commons licenseview and download image here.

Weather Illuminated Hurricane Isabel in the Atlantic Ocean

Images taken from satellites in space in different types of light help us better predict weather and understand the science that drives it. For example, infrared light reveals detail in cloud structures that would otherwise be invisible. Doppler radar, which measures the direction and speed of a moving precipitation, uses microwave light to tell us when to expect rain or snow. Astronaut Ed Luca captured this image in visible light of the eye of Hurricane Isabel as he passed overhead on the International Space Station on September 15, 2013. Details of the hurricane's structure can help meteorologists determine just how powerful such a storm may be as well as determine the path it may take.
Image Credit:
NASA/JSC/Mike Trenchard
view and download image here.

Sun Dogs And Halo Around Setting Sun Farley, Iowa, USA

The term "sun dog" refers to a pair of bright lights seen on either side of the Sun, typically when it is setting. Sun dogs belong to a large class of atmospheric phenomena caused by the bending of sunlight by small ice crystals in the air. The crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays. If the crystals are randomly oriented in the atmosphere, a complete ring around the Sun–a halo–is seen, as is the case with this photograph. The best time to see sun dogs is during the winter when the Sun is close to the horizon.
Image Credit:
Thomas DeHoffview and download image here.

Sunflowers North Dakota, USA

Perhaps one of the most remarkable phenomena on Earth is photosynthesis. This is the process that allows plants, bacteria, and algae to convert light from our Sun into chemical energy. Photosynthesis uses light to transform carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen. Since all animal life, including humans, eats plants–either directly or indirectly through animals–and uses oxygen to breathe, light is the fuel that allows us to exist.
Image Credit:
USDAview and download image here.

Rainbow Lands On Cow New Zealand

Sunlight is made up of a mixture of many wavelengths of light. Each visible wavelength is perceived as a different color, with violet having the shortest wavelength, and red the longest. When sunlight enters a raindrop, its path is bent; the light is "refracted." Each wavelength is bent slightly differently, with shorter wavelengths bent more than longer ones. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted (bent) when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. This causes the combined colors of sunlight to spread out into the familiar red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet of a rainbow. Here we see a rainbow as it appears to touch down over a cow in New Zealand.
Image Credit:
Lisa & Jeffrey Smith
view and download image here.

This website was developed by Lightsources.org, a collaboration between communicators from light source facilities around the world.

IYL2015 is a global initiative adopted by the United Nations to raise awareness of how optical technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to worldwide challenges in energy, education, agriculture, communications and health.